Between the Earth and the Wind
by Poetry-In-The-Ending
Summary: Her best friend loves her, her boyfriend cherishes her, and she loves them both.  Now it's up to Aqua to make sure both their hearts don't get broken.  But what do you do when you're going to be the cause of their heartache?  Ven x Aqua x Terra.
1. Chapter 1

**My own stab at writing a full fic. Be gentle, it's my first time (sexual innuendo not intended….much)**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing, but it would be damn interesting if I did.**

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_Life lesson number 1: __Love is not simple and straightforward. Love is difficult, confusing and full of twists and turns, which can stray you from what you truly care about._

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The sun slowly began to rise over Destiny Islands, waking everything that it came across. Plants blossomed, the sea shimmered brightly as the sun reflected off the clear blue water, and the sky was almost completely void of all clouds. It was the first sunny day in a week, and no doubt everyone would be heading to the beach. What most people would not be doing, would be kicking their younger brothers door open and yell at him.

"Oi Venny! Get up! Time for school!"

Ven, known annoyingly as 'Venny' by his older brother Vanitas, barely had time to lift his head from the pillow before having said older brother sit on his head. After a few loud though muffled yells from Ven, Vanitas sat up and snickered cruelly, leaving the room and shouting, "Go get a shower, you smell like an ass!"

Muttering swears at random and imagining Vanitas being beaten by a bunch of brick filled pillowcases, Ven slid himself out of bed and went to the bathroom. After 'relieving himself of duty' as Vanitas called it, he showered and went to get changed, the obvious blazing heat outside meant that the light uniform could be worn today, which consisted of a thin white shirt, blue pants and white shoes with a blue trim. The tie was optional, and Ven had decided to modify his shoes by drawing black and read squares along the sides of the shoes, leaving the top of them white.

"Ven, breakfast is ready."

Grabbing his phone off the counter and his bag at the end of his bed, Ven left his room and went downstairs, dropping his bag near the front door as he made his way to the kitchen. Vanitas was already there, devouring what looked like pancakes, to which Ven was amazed that Vanitas hadn't already destroyed his uniform with syrup. Carefully moving past him, Ven sat down and pulled his own stack of pancakes towards him, eating them with a lot more manners than Vanitas possessed in his entire body. It was the creepy munching sounds that finally got on Vens' nerves.

"Van, if you don't stop chewing like a cow, I'm going to string you up like one."

Vanitas mostly ignored him, only showing Ven he heard him by giving him the finger. Ven entertained the idea of having a pair of scissors to chop off said finger, but his mother coming into the kitchen from the sitting room and catching Vanitas doing the rude gesture was good enough.

"Vanitas! What have I said about swearing and rude hand gestures?" Their mother scolded him, Ven suppressed a snigger, while Vanitas hurriedly put his hand down, though obviously getting caught was routine to him, as he didn't seem too worried about it.

"I know mom, never do it in front of you." The way Vanitas said it made it sound like he was reading it out of a book for the millionth time, but it always satisfied their mother. As she got her own breakfast and made her way back into the sitting room Ven felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. He pulled it out, ignored Vanitas when he asked 'what does your boyfriend want?' and saw it was a text message from Aqua.

_Hey Ven, want to walk to school with me? I'm passing your house in about 2 minutes._

Trying his best to be unexcited about it and making Vanitas curious, Ven got up and slid the rest of his pancakes on Vanitas' plate, causing him to make some sort of squealing noise and begin devouring the second helping of food laid in front of him. Ven walked out into the hall, grabbing his bag off the floor and opened the door and went outside. As expected, there was Aqua walking up the path. Ven smiled and walked out to the road, smiling at her as she approached. He stole glances at her uniform, it was similar to the boys' uniform, except instead of pants, the girls wore skirts, and had knees length socks that matched the skirt. Ven thought he was imagining it, but the uniform, coupled with her natural hair and eye colour, made Aqua look incredibly cute.

"Hey Ven, looks like it's going to be hot today. I so hope that we don't have gym outside today, that'll be torture."

"You think that's bad?" Ven began, not even noticing that he and Aqua had begun walking towards the direction of school, "Three week ago we had to go outside and do push ups and jumping jacks and everything, and this was during the pouring rain and the gale force wind. Mr. Lexaeus _still_ wouldn't let us back inside, he said it builds character. All I built up was my immune system, got a damn cold off it afterwards."

Ven and Aqua had walked all the way to school, talking about anything such as school, life at home (where Ven gave many examples of how Vanitas was a gigantic idiot) and the upcoming summer holidays. As they reached the entrance to Destiny Departure High School, Aqua turned to Ven with an expression that Ven knew all too well.

"So Ven, any girlfriend I should know about?" She said slyly, giggling as Ven rolled his eyes and sighed.

"For the four hundredth and ninety sixth time, I do not have a girlfriend, and neither is there any girl at the moment asking me out that I want to go out with." Ven smiled as Aqua pouted playfully, she was always asking him about his love life, or rather his lack of one.

"You need to start looking for a girl Ven, pretty soon they'll all be gone, and you'll have to spend the rest of the year single again. And I always wanted to go on a double date. It'd be so cool! You, your date and me and Terra!"

Vens train of thought quickly slipped away into masked jealousy, as much as he liked Aqua, and he didn't have any dislike towards Terra either, he hated when their names plus anything about relationships came up. He knew full well he liked Aqua as more than a friend, and it wasn't Terra's fault, but Ven felt so much better when he decided it was because of Terra that he couldn't ask Aqua out on a date.

"So what do you think?" Aqua asked, causing Ven to snap out of his train of thought and pay attention.

"Uh yeah sure. No problem." Ven smiled at her, his mind working furiously to check whether or not he had caught any of the conversation and figure out what he had just said yes to. His mind went blank a few seconds later, as Aqua had just hugged him, and he felt like holding her forever.

"That's great Ven! I can't wait to see who you're going to ask out for our double date!" Aqua broke the hug, smiling at Ven, who was now horrified at the fact that he had just agreed to ask a girl out on a date, and not just any date, a double date with Aqua and Terra. He was smiling back at her, but on the inside he was screaming in despair. He watched as Aqua went inside, not being one to be late for class. Ven just stood there, replaying Aqua's words in his mind, until he suddenly realized their meaning. He tried to figure out some way to express his feelings, only to fail and think up two word.

"Ah balls..."

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Aqua walked into class, heading straight to her seat and sitting down. The teacher still wasn't there yet, so she turned to talk to her friend and cousin Kairi, who looked somewhat like Aqua, only her hair was longer and was a dark red. Kairi was busy talking about her new boyfriend Sora who, after years of waiting, had finally mustered up the courage to ask her out. They had only been going out for about two weeks, but Kairi still couldn't get over the feeling, and Aqua just knew that they would be happy together for a long time. They finally stopped talking when their biology teacher, Mr. Ansem, came in and settled into his chair behind the desk.

"Alright class, today we will be talking about the functions of the heart."

After class ended, Aqua went to her locker and grabbed her History books, only to squeak in surprise when she felt a pair of arms wrap around her. She tilted her head and saw the familiar brown hair of Terra and smiled. She turned around and hugged him before looking at him sternly.

"I thought you weren't coming to school today? You were being lazy again weren't you." It was a statement, not a question, but Terra just smiled.

"I don't know, is being lazy and not wanting to listen to Mr. Ansem's ramblings about some organ having some sort of special purpose the same thing?"

Aqua shrugged in agreement, not a lot off people enjoyed Mr Ansem's lessons, especially when he started being philosophical about the body. She felt Terra's lips against hers, and she kissed him back, though only for a few seconds, as Mrs Lockhart was sure to suddenly appear around the corner and tell them off for making out in the middle of the hall.

"I'll see you at lunch okay?" Terra said, letting go of her, kissing her cheek and walking to class. Aqua smiled and walked to History class, too busy hoping for lunch to come soon.

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Ven yawned as he sat in class, waiting for the bell to ring so he could get lunch. He was stuck in Mr. Vexens' computer class, and was completely tuned out as he explained firewalls and proxy servers. Ven wasn't really interested in the inner workings of computers. As long as he was able to chat with his friends online and play games he wasn't too bothered with it. Once the bell rang Ven leapt out of his seat, ignoring Mr. Vexen reminding everyone to revise what they had learned, and made his way to the cafeteria. He was one of the first few to get there and got his lunch quickly, heading to the usual table he and his friends always sat in. As he ate, more students came into the cafeteria, with most of his friends coming to the table. Vanitas, Axel, Riku, Sora, Kairi, Xion, Aqua and Terra had all arrived. Ven had frowned when he saw Terra, as he was currently holding Aqua's hand.

"Hey Ven, you got something on your face. Looks like jealousy." Vanitas whispered to him, sniggering and wincing after Ven had punched him in the shoulder. Nobody paid any attention, as Ven hitting Vanitas was normal by now. Ven wished that Vanitas wasn't one of the few people to know that he liked Aqua, as he had gotten a lot of sly comments from Vanitas, and had to hit him extra hard before he promised not to tell anyone. Ven would have even preferred that Terra knew over Vanitas.

"So guys, any plans for the weekend?" Kairi asked, looking around at the group, mostly at Ven, who continued to throw glances at Terra and Aqua, the jealousy evident in his eyes. Kairi felt bad for Ven, of all the people he could have liked, he ended up liking a girl who was in a relationship. She thought Terra was a nice guy, but she really would have liked to see Ven and Aqua going out with each other.

"Eh, me and Axel are going to try and get into the Worlds End nightclub, see if we can get a couple of pretty college girls." Vanitas smirked, giving Axel a highfive. Everyone rolled their eyes, knowing full well that it would fail horribly.

"Well me and Xion are going to go see a movie or something, and probably go for something to eat afterwards." Riku said casually as if he was talking about the weather. Xion on the other hand was blushing lightly, thrilled that she was spending a day with Riku. "What about you two?" Riku asked.

"Oh, well me and Sora were thinking of going to Twilight town for the day, he has a cousin over there so we have a place to stay." Kairi said before glaring at Vanitas, who was whispering to Axel and laughing. Whatever he was whispering to him, Kairi didn't want to know.

"Well me, Terra and Ven are going on a double date." Aqua said, failing to notice the surprise on most of their faces. Ven looked down into his food, desperately wishing he could have drowned himself in his now empty bowl of soup.

"Well there's a shock." Vanitas said sarcastically, "So when're we going to meet the unlucky lady who has to go out with you?"

Ven refrained himself from leaping over the table and strangling Vanitas, and just nodded in agreement with Aqua. "Yeah, she asked if I'd go on a double date with her and Terra, so I just have to ask a girl if they'll be my date for Saturday."

Aqua smiled brightly, but Terra kept his eye on Ven. He had it on very good authority that Ven liked Aqua more than he let on. He never did anything because he liked Ven, and Ven never did anything to get on Terras' bad side. But despite the fact Ven was a nice guy, Terra couldn't escape the feeling that he should be suspicious.

"How about this" Terra began, getting Ven and Aqua's attention. "We'll all go out, get something to eat, see a movie or something, and then head to Wonderland for the night."

Wonderland, a teen hotel where the rooms were awesomely insane, the only adults were the workers, and the only rules being boys couldn't share the same room with girls and illegal substances weren't allowed. It was one of the best places to go on a night out and usually resulted in kids talking about it for weeks afterwards.

Ven suddenly felt his mind start working fast, thinking up a pile of little thoughts and ideas, until he came up with one final solution. At Wonderland, during the entire insanity of being a teenager, Aqua would know everything. The only gamble was if she felt the same way.

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**And that's the first chapter down. Hope I did okay and that you guys like it. Please review. I want to get feedback on what I can improve on before I put up more chapters. Go on, write a review. Please? :3**


	2. Chapter 2

**Decided to add the second chapter early :3 Hope you like it.**

**Disclaimer: Blah blah blah own nothing blah blah blah storyline mine blah.**

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_Life lesson Number Two: Never think for one second that your best friend can do no wrong, and never be mad at them for when they do something wrong. We're all human, and if you never make a mistake, you never learn from it._

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Aqua was walking home with Kairi, having declined Terra's offer of driving her home, and would rather hang out at Kairi's house for the day. Kairi lived on the other side of the island in the Paopu District, a modest suburb that was built close to the mountains, so it was taking them a while to get there. In the meantime, they talked about clothes, shoes and the last topic any male wanted to hear about, cute boys. They had currently landed on the subject of cute boys in their own gang. Having cleared Axel, Riku, Sora and Terra already, they landed on the idiotic but fun Vanitas.

"Do you think Vanitas would ever settle down and behave normally for a girl?" Aqua asked, walking along the cobbled streets with Kairi.

"No way, he may be cute, but he is so obnoxious. I'm amazed that Ven is even related to him." Kairi said smiling; Aqua laughed and nodded her head.

"Well I guess when you have an obnoxious older brother you're stuck to hitting him to shut him up. And speaking of Ven, what about him? You think he's cute?" Aqua asked Kairi, who smiled slyly.

"Oh? Feeling attracted to Ven now are we Aqua?" Kairi giggled, making Aqua blush and push her friend lightly off the path.

"Oh shush, I was just wondering what you thought." Aqua said flatly, still trying to hide the red tinge in her cheeks.

"Oh come on Aqua don't be all shy. I find Vanitas is cute, but it doesn't mean I'm going to break up with Sora and start swooning over Vanitas."

"Swooning?" Aqua said laughing lightly at Kairis' choice of words, causing Kairi to roll her eyes at her.

"The point is, you might be dating Terra, but you can still admit Ven is cute. To be honest, I think he looks a lot like Roxas McCartney, I could totally see him singing his songs!" Kairi exclaimed, earning a smile from Aqua.

"Yeah you're right. He is cute. I really hope he finds a girl for out double date this week, maybe he'll finally start dating." Aqua said, despite feeling the tiniest hint of jealousy that another girl would be with Ven.

Having reached Kairi's house, Aqua and Kairi went inside to the smell of cooking. Sticking his head out the kitchen door, her dad smiled and waved to both of them, a ladle clutched in his hand.

"Hey girls, I'm just making something for dinner right now. Would you like some Aqua? We're having sweet and sour chicken and rice."

Aqua smiled and declined, as her mother had dinner waiting for her at home. They left Kairi's dad to his cooking, and they both ran up the stairs two at a time into Kairi's room. Wasting no time, Kairi went to her wardrobe and pulled out a sleek red dress, holding it against her body so Aqua could see the way it would look on her. The dress was a bit above the knees, with a slit on one side that showed off Kairis' leg. It showed a bit of cleavage, but not too much to make it look like the dress was about to drop off at any moment. She smiled and shook her head.

"Poor Sora, he's going to die of a massive nosebleed and he hasn't even reached eighteen yet." Aqua burst out laughing alongside Kairi, who couldn't help but imagine Sora's reaction at seeing Kairi wearing that dress.

"So what's the dress for?" Aqua asked as Kairi put it away.

"Well lets just say that I have a big surprise for Sora when we're in Twilight Town…"

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"Hell yeah! Told you I'd beat you!" Sora shouted at Ven, who was killed for the fifteenth time in Black Ops. Ven chucked the remote onto Soras' bed, giving up on playing the game. Sora felt they played enough as well and shut off the console.

"So Ven, what's up with you and Aqua. You didn't seem too happy in lunch today." Sora asked, sitting on his chair backwards and looking at Ven out of curiosity. Ven looked at him, sighed and closed his eyes.

"It's nothing Sora. Just some things I'm going through."

"You like her don't you."

It was the way Sora said it, the 'it's pretty obvious to everyone' tone in his voice, which made Ven sit up surprised. He looked at Sora, wondering what to say or how to deny it. Sadly his brain decided to say something else.

"How did you know?" He said before he could stop himself. Realizing what he had said, Ven just wanted to beat himself senseless, hoping if he did it hard enough he'd forget he said it along with everyone else.

Sora smiled and scratched his head awkwardly. "I know you guys think I'm not the brightest guy in school, but I know some things. And I can definitely tell that you really like Aqua."

Ven stared in disbelief, here was Sora, the one person in the group that everyone knew was usually clueless about girls and everything else in general, and yet he knew straight away that Ven liked Aqua simply because of the way Ven looked at lunch.

"Yeah…yeah I like her. But Terra's going out with her. Not me, and she really likes the guy, so what can I do about it."

"Wow, for a guy who isn't afraid to punch Vanitas and not worry he'll get punched in the face afterwards, you sure are a wimp."

Ven sat up, surprised Sora would call him a wimp, in fact he was surprised Sora had actually insulted him. Sora never insulted anyone. He was Sora for crying out loud. "Me? A wimp? How in the heck am I a wimp?"

"Simple." Sora said. "You like Aqua, but you're too afraid of telling her that you like her because you're afraid she'll turn you down, or that Terra will find out and convince her to stay away from you. Face it Ven, you're a wimp."

There was a long silence between the both of them as they stared at one another. Ven couldn't stop thinking about how accurate Sora was. What if Aqua rejected how he felt towards her, would she distance herself from him? That meant she wouldn't talk to him at school, stay away from their usual table. What if some of the guys or girls decided to keep her company, would the gang split up over him admitting he liked her? And even if she did feel the same towards him, there was still the problem that was Terra. Ven wasn't afraid of Terra, having a brother like Vanitas makes you lack actual safety for your own wellbeing. What did scare him was that Terra would do everything in his power to keep Ven from talking to Aqua. Terra may have hung out with them at school, but Ven knew full well that Terra was friends with the guys on the blitz team, and they could make it difficult for him to even get to class on time, let alone have a decent conversation with Aqua.

Sora was right. He was a wimp.

"Maybe you're right Sora. But come on, I'm sure you were terrified when you wanted to admit to Kairi you liked her. And she was single, you didn't have to worry about the fact she was already dating someone."

Sora gaped at Ven, before laughing at him. "And the guys at school think I'm simple. Yeah Kairi didn't have a boyfriend, and that made it a million times harder. The only reason Xion and Aqua didn't have guys drooling over them in public was because they had boyfriends, and I honestly don't think it'd be a good idea to try and flirt with the girlfriends of Riku or Terra."

Ven thought of the scenario for a moment, where a pile of guys were being beaten to a pulp by Terra and Riku for flirting with Xion and Kairi. Ven gulped when hee imagined one of those guys as himself.

"Anyways.." Sora continued on, not wanting to know what Ven was thinking that made him look like he was being slapped. "Kairi didn't have a boyfriend, which means every guy in school was basically her boyfriend. Everyone was trying to ask her out. Do you have any idea what it was like trying to ask her when there was about twenty guys all planning to do the same thing as you? It's really not fun, especially when the jealous, possessive types showed up."

"Okay okay. I get it." Ven said, bored with Soras' story. He got the gist of it though. If Aqua were single, he'd have to compete with every guy in the school to get her attention. She was with Terra, he only had to compete with him. He felt his brain starting to hurt, he was thinking about it too much.

"Ergh, I'm going to go talk a walk or something. Clear my head." Ven sighed, getting up and heading for the door. Sora watched as Ven left and smiled. Pulling out his phone, he dialled a number, hearing two rings before someone answered.

"Hello?"

"It's confirmed. Ven likes Aqua. We gonna go ahead with the plan?"

"Heh, if this plan fails, I'll eat your puppy."

"I don't care if you succeed or fail, you're not eating Saix!"

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Ven sat on the pier on the beach, looking out at the ocean and into thee distance, the small play island they all used to go to. They didn't go to it anymore, as the council decided that the island was a valuable spot of land that they could make into a port. There was still an ongoing argument about what should happen with the island, but until a decision was made it was closed off to the public.

Ven chose the pier as his thinking spot. Although a lot of people went to the beach, many of them tended to go to the beach on the other side of the island, as it was more secluded and was more distant from buildings, whereas this beach was less than a two minute walk to the nearest house. Having slid off his shoes and socks and rolled up the legs of his pants, Ven dipped his feet into the water, looking up into the sky as the water licked at his shins. The sun was starting to set now, leaving the sky a brilliant array of red, yellow and orange. It wasn't the same as the play island, it was a lot more peaceful over there, but it was okay.

"Boo!"

Ven yelped and sat up, though sat up too fast and causing himself to slide off the pier into the water. It wasn't deep, but the shock and the fall caused him to fall into the water, soaking his entire body. He stood up and broke the surface of the water, spitting water out of his mouth and rubbing his eyes to regain his vision. Looking around, he saw Aqua on her knees, tears coming form her eyes after causing all that to happen from one word.

"Haha, very funny." Ven said sourly, wading out of the water as his clothes, now saturated, weighed him down. Aqua continued to laugh, which slowly went to giggles, and finally smirking. Ven was now laying flat on the pier, hoping the sun was still shining strong enough to dry his clothes

"So what're you doing here?" Ven asked, still looking at the sky. Aqua smiled and lay beside him, looking at him rather than the sky. His hair had drooped over his face, making him look cute and funny at the same time. It was odd seeing Ven without his hair adding at least five more inches to his height.

"What? I can't come and scare my best friend or lay on public property now?" Aqua said sarcastically, to which Ven smiled and nudged her playfully. She turned her head and began looking at the sky, which was starting to darken, and glimpses of the night sky could be seen through the clouds.

"So how're things between you and Terra?" Ven said quietly.

The question surprised Aqua, Ven never asked about her relationship with Terra, and what surprised her more was that she was hesitant to answer him. He had been her best friend since they were kids, and Terra was her boyfriend. She remembered that when she first began going out with Terra, Ven had become surprisingly busy over the first few weeks, rarely spending time with her and always disappearing in school to do his homework. She had never noticed it then, because she was still enthusiastic about having a real relationship. Now that she thought about it, she was starting to wonder what Ven thought of her relationship with Terra.

"It's fine. We were planning to go out tomorrow and see where all of us could go eat for our double date, and we were wondering if we should all go see The Fighter at the MoviePlex afterwards.

Aqua watched as Ven gave a silent 'Oh' before looking back at the sky, now suddenly feeling awkward. Why Ven was suddenly so curious about her relationship with Terra made her feel a little confused. Eventually they sat up and began walking off the beach, glancing at each other secretly, turning back to look in front of them whenever they felt they were caught looking at each other. They walked in silence, looking around awkwardly once they reach the fork in the road, meaning that they had to go opposite ways to reach their homes.

"I guess I'll see you tomorrow." Ven said quietly.

"Yeah…see you tomorrow." Aqua said, holding her arm and looking at the ground. She felt so weird around him right now.

They slowly turned and began walking away from each other when Ven suddenly turned around. "Aqua?"

She turned around to face him, wondering what he might say to her next. However she saw him smiling gently, and relaxed a little, knowing that is smile always meant he had forgiven her.

"You're my best friend, no matter what." Ven said, grinning at her as he turned and began walking home.

Aqua smiled brightly as she watched him walk home, before turning around and heading home herself. Her mind feeling less worried about what Ven thought of her relationship with Terra. She knew that Terra was most likely a high school crush, and that maybe they would grow apart and become friends in time, but she knew that Ven would always be her best friend no matter what.

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**Welp that's chapter two down. I'm hoping to make this thing around six chapters long, so I hope you guys can bear with me while I slowly drag this out. Although I'****m fairly proud of the fact I wrote a chapter so quickly. Please review, I really want to know what people think of my story. I don't want to write it if people have no interest in it :P  
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	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter three, I promise things will be interesting :3**

**Disclaimer: Yeah, you know the drill.  
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_Life Lesson Number Three: There is an old saying that opposites attract. If that is true then why do we only make friends with people who are similar to us? Don't be afraid to do things differently._

Aqua yawned as she stepped out of the bathroom, having just finished her shower to get rid of most of her exhaustion. Making sure her door was locked, as she didn't want any visitors, especially when she was nude. Her clothes, a sky blue top, dark jeans and her undergarments lay neatly on the bed. Picking up her panties, she slid them on as someone knocked on the door. She froze; horrified as she temporarily forgot she had locked the door.

"Who is it?" she said, relieved that she had locked the door but still blushing at the thought of someone walking in on her naked.

"It's us silly! Kairi and Xion, you asked us to come over to help with the double date remember?

Smiling, Aqua quickly slipped herself into the rest of her clothes, before going to the door and unlocking it, letting the two girls in. Kairi sighed and shook her head.

"Wasn't it a rule that guys have blue rooms and girls have pink rooms?" Kairi asked, referring to the colour of the walls in Aqua's room, which were a dark blue, while the ceiling was a bright sky blue. Xion lay down on the bed, not caring what colour the walls were, as long as there was something she could lay down on something comfortable.

"Heh, I think my hair colour decided for me. And what the heck are you two doing here? Me, Terra, Ven and his date won't be going out until ten o' clock. It's only eleven o' clock now."

"Duh, we have to get you ready." Xion said, while Kairi smiled and agreed. Aqua just laughed and shook her head.

"No way, I can do it myself, last time we tried to get ready super early we all ended up looking like hell. Kairi, your hair looked like you were electrocuted, and Xion your hair somehow managed to turn green. You were lucky my mom had some extra black hair dye."

"Oh shush", Kairi said, blushing as she remembered that particular embarrassing memory. "You have to let us help you. We all know how much Ven…

Xion suddenly started making a loud weird noise with her throat, stopping Kairi from speaking while Aqua frowned. Everyone knew how much Ven what? She noticed Xion was caught between staring at Kairi with a serious expression and a worried one, while Kairi almost looked horrified, as if she had committed a crime.

"Ven? What about Ven?" Aqua asked, wondering why her looking beautiful would be something for Ven and not Terra. What made her more curious was Xion suddenly stopping Kairi from saying what she was going to say.

"Oh crap!" Xion said, suddenly standing up from the bed and grabbing Kairi's arm. "We've got to go Aqua, I suddenly remembered me and Riku have a date tonight. Can you help me Kairi?"

Kairi never answered and Aqua never got a change to find out what they meant about Ven, as Xion had dragged Kairi out the door and shut it with a bang. Aqua sat down on her bed, still wondering what they meant.

"Well that was weird."

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"She what!" He cried into the phone, pacing back and forth. How could this have happened? Kairi was a smart girl, how could she have let something private slip?

"_It completely slipped out. She's still horrified that she said it. She meant to say Terra."_ Xion asked, speaking casually as if talking about the weather. She didn't feel the need to be worried about what Kairi said, what happened just happened, there was nothing they could do to fix it now.

"Oh well that's all well and good then, everything can be forgiven because she said the wrong name. Oh wait, no she can't, because she said it to the one person who shouldn't find out about it yet!"

On the other end of the phone, Xion was holding it at arms length, his voice audible even to Kairi, who was on the other side of the room. She felt a hand slide into her own, and she smiled softly as Sora cheered her up by kissing her cheek.

"_Can you please stop shouting?"_ Xion asked. _"It's fine, Aqua didn't figure out what she meant. And you know what Aqua is like, if she doesn't find out she'll decide she should just drop it."_

He sighed and lay down on his bed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Alright. As long as she doesn't figure it out we still have a chance to sort this whole thing out. We all know Ven doesn't have a date, he loves Aqua too much to even think about another girl, let alone ask one out on a date."

"_What about Terra?" _Xion asked, wondering how they could pull this off while Terra was right there.

"Don't worry. He'll be dealt with."

Hanging up the phone. He stretched and got up off his bed. They had almost had the entire plan ruined when they were so close to succeeding. Looking at his phone again, he rang another number, hearing it ring four times before it was answered.

"_Hello?" _The person on the other end of the phone answered.

"Hey Terra, it's me, listen, I got a call from Headmaster Yen Sid, he said that your application form for that Mark of Mastery exam was accepted. It's on tonight at nine-thirty.

"_Are you serious?" _Terra asked, the delight evident in his voice. One thing everyone knew was Terra's dream of getting to sit the Mark of Mastery Exam. Once they found out where the application forms were held it was easy to have it submitted and passed. He didn't want to brag, but he was a goddamn genius.

"_Ah Goddamnit…I can't. I've that double date with Aqua and Ven tonight at ten."_

"Uhm dude, this is the Mark of Mastery Exam. You can't exactly just ring them up and ask them to reschedule. Just call Aqua and explain it to her. She'll understand how important it is.

_I guess you're right. Thanks for telling me. I would have missed it if you didn't tell me."_

"Oh no problem, talk to you tomorrow, tell us how it goes."

Hanging up the phone, he smiled and decided to go to sleep. All this planning was exhausting.

* * *

_**Six O' Clock**_

"So Ven, no date tonight?" Sora said. He had gone to meet up with Ven after said boy finished work. Ven sighed and shook his head.

"No, you know how much I like Aqua. And I don't think it would be fair for any girl that I brought if I only brought them because Aqua made me promise to."

"So you're not going to go?" Sora asked, ready to leap into action and persuade Ven to go on the date tonight if he had to. Luckily he didn't need to, as Ven shook his head.

"No I'm going, I may not have gotten a date, but I did promise that I'd go out with her and Terra. I just hope it's not extremely weird, and by that I mean that they're not all cuddled up kissing and sharing food off each others forks and stuff." Ven said sourly, the thoughts of Aqua doing that with Ven forming in his mind.

"Uhm Ven? She's dating Terra, she's not in some soppy romance filled story. I doubt they'd do that."

This cheered Ven up a little, Sora was right. Aqua was someone who hated showing too much affection in public. And at the most only let Terra hold her hand while they were with their friends. Since Ven would be there, she most likely wouldn't let Terra be too romantic, she wouldn't want Ven to feel alone and awkward. At least that was what Ven was hoping.

"Hey Ven? You awake?" Sora called, waving his hand in front of Vens face. It was only when he snapped his fingers did Ven realized he was still walking with Sora. "Huh? What is it?"

"Uhm, you just walked right past your house. It's back there." He said, pointing at Ven's house. Ven sighed for completely blanking out and began walking back home. "Thanks Sora, I'll see you tomorrow."

"No problem." Sora replied as Ven walked away. Once he was far enough from him, Sora pulled out his phone and dialled a number. "Hey, he said he's going, let's get this done with."

* * *

_**Nine-Thirty p.m**_

"Soooo….." Vanitas said slowly, watching as Ven slowly went around the room picking up anything he may need for the night. He had his wallet, his phone was in his pocket, and he had some breathmints given to him by his mother. He told her repeatedly that he didn't have a date, yet she insisted that he take them anyways. He was so busy trying to remember if he had everything that Vanitas called him again.

"Earth to Venny, Venny come in, can you hear me? Captain Vanitas the Awesome calling Venny." Vanitas said, holding his hand to his mouth as if he was talking into a two-way radio. It got Ven's attention, as he hated being called Venny, which was most likely why Vanitas never stopped saying it.

"What do you want? I'm trying to get ready." Ven said irritably, he normally would have just punched Vanitas, but he was in a hurry and was in no mood for him. Vanitas only smirked.

"Well excuse me Mr. 'I'm going on a double date without an actual date while I stare enviously at the girl and guy who are in a relationship', but I was merely wondering why you haven't tried anything. If it were me, things would have happened a lot quicker and smoother."

"Vanitas, if you so much as said hello to Aqua in anything other than a normal tone she would have ignored you, and even if you did say it in a normal tone she'd ignore you anyways, because everyone in school knows you're an idiot." Ven said as he checked himself in the mirror, making sure his hair was sticking up the way it always did.

"Hey, I may be an idiot but that doesn't mean I know nothing. School simply doesn't teach the important things, so why bother learning it? I know I'm not going to use maths when I'm older, so no point in doing it."

Once again ignoring him, Ven walked out of his room and down the stairs, saying goodbye to his mom as he made his way to the MoviePlex. It was going to be a long horrible night.

* * *

Aqua stood waiting at the entrance of the MoviePlex, looking around for the familiar sight of spiky blonde hair. She was a bit disappointed that Terra wouldn't be coming tonight, but the Mark of Mastery Exam was a big deal to Terra, and she knew he had always wanted to take the exam. So now she was on her own, waiting for Ven and his date to show up. Aqua wondered what his date was like, and really hoped that it was someone she wouldn't grow to hate.

It came to a surprise to her then, when Ven showed up alone, as he ran towards her through the crowd.

"Hey Aqua." He said, smiling and taking a few breaths after the short run he had. He didn't see Terra, so he figured he must have gone inside already.

"Hey Ven, glad to see you made it." Aqua replied, smiling at her blonde friend. She then looked around, wondering if Ven had maybe ran towards her and left his date behind. "Hey Ven? Where's your date?"

"Oh, about that. I…couldn't really get one for tonight. So I just decided to come alone." Ven smiled sheepishly, before quickly changing the subject. "So where's Terra? Is he getting your tickets?"

It was now Aqua's turn to act somewhat awkwardly, as she rubbed her arm and looked around, as if pretending that Terra would show up at any moment with the tickets. "Oh, he couldn't make it. He got a call and was offered to take the Mark of Mastery Exam. It was on at nine-thirty and won't be finished for a few hours. So he had to cancel our date tonight."

The only thing that registered in Ven's mind was that he and Aqua were alone tonight. What had been planned as a double date now suddenly became a date between Ven and Aqua. He felt his heart hammering in his chest. He had dreamt of going on a date with Aqua before, but never thought that he would actually be on one with her.

"So um…want to go in? I've already gotten the tickets." Aqua asked, pulling the tickets out of her handbag. Ven smiled and nodded.

"Yeah. Let's go."

After the movie had ended, Ven and Aqua had walked to the restaurant, which wasn't too far from the MoviePlex. On their way they talked about the movie, before moving onto stuff about school and Terra's Mark of Mastery Exam, which Ven was extremely quiet about in the hopes that they would move onto something else to talk about. Thankfully they had arrived at the restaurant, and after convincing the maitre d' that they wouldn't be waiting for the other two people that were supposed to be there, managed to get to their table and began looking through the menu.

"So what are you ordering?" Aqua asked. "I was just thinking of getting a salad and maybe some chicken and rice."

"Hmmm…." Ven muttered, looking through the menu, a lot of stuff looked too expensive, and the stuff that wasn't expensive listed a bunch of ingredients that had long confusing names. "Ah to heck with it. I'll get the same."

Aqua smiled, Ven hated having to pick through so many choices of food, and he was like that since he was little. Once the waiter had come to the table and took their orders, Aqua began talking again.

"Oh yeah, Kairi and Xion came over earlier today. And Kairi said something strange."

"What do you mean?" Ven asked.

"Well…they were trying to convince me that they should help me with my make up and stuff for tonight, and then all of a sudden Kairi said something about you, though Xion stopped her saying what it was and they ran off. It was weird."

Ven felt his stomach clench, although Aqua didn't know what Xion and Kairi meant, Ven knew completely what they were talking about. It was time to come clean.

"Hey Aqua. Can we go to the pier after this? I need to show you something."

Aqua could tell by the way was talking quietly and awkwardly that it was really important to him. She also felt that it was somehow related to whatever Kairi was about to say.

"Of course I'll go Ven." Aqua replied, before going back to eating her meal.

The dinner was quiet, as neither one of them had much to say to each other. Ven couldn't stop encouraging himself to go through with what he was planning, and Aqua was wondering why Ven wanted to go to the pier. When they had finished their dinner, Ven was even more fidgety. He paid for the meal and got up, moving towards the door off the restaurant before Aqua had a chance to put her coat on. She shouted after him to wait, and he slowed down to let her catch up, mumbling an apology for walking off so fast.

"We're here." Aqua said after ten minutes of walking silently together. It was a really uncomfortable feeling. Ven was usually so talkative.

"Ven? Are…are you okay?" Aqua said quietly, concerned for her friend.

"Aqua…there's something I need to tell you. I have honestly no idea how you'll react, or what you will do afterwards. I'm just going to come straight out and say it."

Aqua suddenly tensed and braced herself for the words she knew were coming, but it didn't stop her legs from shaking while she waited.

"I love you Aqua."

Aqua let out the breath she didn't know she had been holding. She had never expected that Ven would ever say those words to her. He was her best friend, the one person she was closer to than anyone else, and he was confessing his love for her.

"I know that you're with Terra, and I know that you love him and he loves you. But I just wanted you to know that I love you too. Maybe not more than Terra, but enough to know that I would never let anything happen to you, and that I would do anything for you."

Aqua slowly brought her hand down from her mouth, she didn't even notice she had placed it over her mouth in the first place. "How…since….since when…how long…"

"How long did I know?" Ven finished for her, before looking down at the pier and muttering something Aqua couldn't hear.

"What was that?" She asked, "I can't hear you."

"He then looked up at her, a determination in his eyes she hadn't seen before.

"I loved you since I first saw you."

Her heart beating wildly, Aqua didn't know why she did it, or why she didn't want to stop, but she moved towards him and kissed him hard, her arms wrapped lightly around his shoulders and her hand running through his hair. She felt Ven's hands slide around her waist, before pulling her closer to him, deepening the kiss. Aqua loved the feeling, she loved the way his hair felt in her fingers, and she realized, and not even surprised by it, that she loved Ven too. It may have just suddenly happened, or it may have been her love for him as a friend that suddenly transformed, but she loved him.

Far from the pier, a group of teenagers watched the two kissing, making sure not to be spotted. He was watching them, smiling as his long and drawn out plan finally succeeded. He felt a few pats on his back, and Sora whispered to him.

"You may be an idiot, but you sure are a genius Vanitas."

Vanitas grinned. They really did need to teach this stuff at school.

* * *

**I hoped you guys enjoyed that, because I'm afraid I'll be back in college next week, and I also got a job, so a lot of my free time will be taken up. But have no fears! I'll add some oneshots while writing more chapters, so you don't have to sit around bored while I do them. You guys already know the drill ^^ But to anyone new reading this, please read and review :3**


	4. Chapter 4

**First off I'd like to apologise for being away for ages :/ I got a new job that takes up a LOT of my time. Working from 3 o clock until 3 in the morning makes you too tired to do anything else. Anyways, back to fics :3**

* * *

A low rumble of thunder forced Ven to wake up, making him automatically curl up underneath the blankets. Despite the gloomy weather he couldn't stop smiling, as his mind repeatedly drifted back to last night, where he and Aqua had kissed on the pier. He could still feel where her lips had pressed against his, and he prayed to every deity imaginable that the feeling would never go away.

Unfortunately the deities decided to ignore him.

"Well good morning Mr. Studmuffin!" Vanitas yelled as he walked into the room, he had only gotten up a few minutes earlier, as his hair was drooping and he was in nothing but a shirt and boxers. Ven turned over to face the wall, his happiness of last night and his natural instinct to hit Vanitas fighting to control his actions.

"So how was last night Venny?" Vanitas asked before sitting on his brothers' bed, knowing full well how the night had gone. Ven turned to face him, his expression unreadable.

"It was alright, nothing too bad." Ven replied, though inside he wanted to say it was the greatest night of his life. Vanitas smirked and shook his head. "Oh Venny, always the one to keep secrets. Anyways get your ass up, we're getting a lift from Terra today."

Vanitas got up and left the room, leaving Ven to think back to what happened last night. He and Aqua had kissed, she knew he loved her. He was thankful for the fact that Terra couldn't make the double date last night.

Suddenly Ven sat upright, his eyes wide with horror. They were getting a lift from Terra, and he knew that Aqua would be in the car as well. He had always planned to tell Aqua he liked her, but he never thought of what to do if they were both around Terra. What if they were all nervous and goofy and Terra started wondering what was going on. All of a sudden the feelings from last night were gone, replaced with a feeling of dread at the thought of himself, Aqua and Terra all in the one place. What really worried him was the thought Aqua would pretend nothing ever happened, that he had dreamed it all.

"Oi Venny! Get you're ass dressed and down here before Terra shows up!"

Ven got out of bed, his mind racing with bad thoughts. Last night was like heaven, but today was going to be hell.

Aqua sat in Terras car, though her mind was miles away in her own world, currently thinking back to last night with her date with Ven. She continuously tried to give herself a reason as to why she had kissed him. She couldn't say he started it, even though he said he loved her she was the one who started the kiss. But the real questions she wanted answers to was why she started the kissing and why she even liked the fact she was kissing Ven.

"Hey guys, get your asses in the car or we're gonna be late."

Aqua turned her head to see they were outside Ven and Vanitas' house, and the two brothers were getting in the back seat. Vanitas was the first to get in, and she glared back at him for giving her an evil smirk, as if he had a secret nobody else was allowed to know. Her glare vanished as soon as Ven got into the car, and she found it hard to keep herself from becoming nervous in front of both Terra and Ven, as if the events of what happened last night would suddenly burst forth on their way to school.

All of a sudden Aqua began thinking the worst. That Ven had admitted he and Aqua kissed, Terra stopping the car suddenly and staring at the both of them, angry and horrified that Ven and Aqua had done something like this, Vanitas looking back and forth, looking surprised but extremely amused at the events unfolding, and eventually Terra getting violent towards everyone. Aqua shuddered horribly, though managing to pass it off as a shiver due to the cold weather.

Reaching school, both Aqua and Ven were extremely relieved to be out of the car and getting some fresh air, though it was only brief as all four of them ran to the entrance to get out of the rain. Terra and Vanitas went to get ready for their English class, while Ven was heading off to biology, but Aqua stayed where she was, looking awkwardly at her feet.

"Uhm Ven? Could I….talk to you for a minute?"

Ven walked back to her, his mind instantly feeling relieved that Aqua wasn't denying that last night never happened, but panicked about what she might say about it. He stayed silent as he waited for Aqua to say something, which took about five minutes before she finally said something.

"Uhm…so about last night…I don't really know…why I did it you know? I just…just…"

"Got caught up in the moment?" Ven finished for her, keeping his voice steady. He didn't want to be angry or upset, but everything Aqua said sounded like she wanted them to both forget about what had happened last night. Everything he dreamed of admitting to her he managed to do last night, and she just wanted to pretend like nothing happened.

"Well yes…but I don't want you to think I didn't enjoy last night. I'll never forget it." She said, giving a soft smile that faltered Ven's stony expression. "And uhm…well I have to admit, you're a really good kisser."

Ven blushed and scratched the back of his head as Aqua giggled at his red face. She didn't want to forget about the night at all, just not have everyone in school know she and Ven had a date last night on their own. He gave her a small wave, before turning to head off to biology, feeling immensely better about the day, despite the rumbling of thunder outside.

* * *

Vanitas sat in the back of English class, paying little to no attention to the poem they were supposed to be studying. He looked around the class to his friends. Axel was two seats away to his right, doodling on his paper as he stared out the window. Kairi and Sora were near the front next to each other, glancing at each other. Vanitas was silently counting to himself how long it would be before they jump off their chairs and started making out, but after three minutes started looking around again, his eyes falling on Terra.

Vanitas smirked as he watched Terra study. He had no idea how much Ven loved Aqua, and he definitely didn't know that Ven and Aqua had kissed each other. He felt it was a bit unfair that he and the others were going behind Terra's back trying to get Ven and Aqua together, but he continuously quelled those thoughts by telling himself that Terra would be moving away after graduation, and that his relationship with Aqua would be over. They would probably say that they'd maintain a long distance relationship, but Vanitas knew that it wouldn't last long, either one of them would tire of the distance, and agree on remaining friends. It was better to get Ven to be Aqua's next relationship now instead of waiting until Terra was gone and Aqua went through that whole "not ready to love again" phase.

When the bell rang Vanitas got up and walked to the door, waiting for Axel to hurry up and get his things. They were the last two out of class, with all of Axels belongings stuffed in his hands after being shooed out of the class by the teacher.

"So how long do you think it'll be before Ven and Aqua cave and just snog each other?" Axel ask, struggling to keep everything from toppling out of his arms. Vanitas just grinned as he saw the familiar blue hair of Aqua walk out of her class and meet up with Terra, who put his arm around her shoulder.

"I don't know how long it'll take, but I know that their worlds are going to be thrown upside down, and they're gonna love every second of it."

"Wow…someone's an egotistical jackass." Axel said smugly.

"Why must you ruin my superiority over the lesser people?" Vanitas whined.

"Because over half those lesser people are taller than you?"

"Oh shut it."


	5. Chapter 5

**Since I've been gone for so long. I decided to give you lot two chapters instead of one. Hope you all enjoy! :D**

* * *

Vanitas sighed as he lay on the beach, listening to the waves crash against the shore as the sun was beating down on everyone who was enjoying the bright sunny day. It had been over a week since his whole plan had been finished up with Ven and Aqua kissing, and now he was bored. Making the plan was fun, but now he had nothing to do.

"I wonder if I could make a plan that ends up with Riku covered in…"

Vanitas flailed wildly as a beach ball suddenly assaulted his face, causing him to sit up and swing his fists at it. Laughter soon followed after he managed to escape from the ball and he turned to see Sora, Ven, Riku, Axel and Terra laughing, minus Riku, who was doing his best to hide even the smallest smirk on his face, and instead just shook his head.

"Sorry about that Vanny, but we're gonna head up to Scrooge's Ice Box for some ice cream, you coming?." Axel said, obviously the culprit behind the beach ball attack. Smirking, Vanitas got up and dusted off any sand clinging to his swim shorts and walked over to the rest of the group.

"Fine, just don't be crying to me when your wallet has mysteriously disappeared." He said quietly, before holding up a black wallet with flame decals all around it. He laughed evilly as he ran while Axel chased after him, yelling a few swear words which caused most of the beach goers to cover younger children's ears and stare daggers at him.

Ven sighed and placed his hand behind his head, watching Vanitas run from Axel as the red haired boy swore at him to give him back his wallet, which increased tenfold after Vanitas swore all the ice cream was Axels' treat. His mind slowly wandered to thinking what the girls were up to right now. More specifically he was wondering what Aqua was doing, and wether or not she was thinking about him. He hadn't seen her since they had talked in school since homework had buried him in algebra, metaphorical poetry, and marine biology. Unable to see the girl of his dreams because of the anatomy of a fish, how romantic does that sound?

"Hey Ven, how's things between you and Aqua?" Whispered Sora, glancing at Terra to make sure he wasn't within earshot. "Have you talked to her at all lately?"

Ven shook his head and sighed, he knew Aqua had a phone, so there wasn't really a reason for her not calling him, aside from homework. He suspected whatever time she had free was being eaten up by Terra calling her and talking for hours. He couldn't help but feel envious that Terra took up all the time of hearing her voice as well as seeing her too. "I'm working on it, I'm going to see if I can get her to come over tomorrow night, just see how things go from there. I'm just trying to get her over there first before I think of anything else."

* * *

"Do you Ventus, take Aqua, to be your lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold, in sickness and in health, till death do you part?"

"I do." Ven said quietly, making Aqua smile brightly as she held his hands in his. She never thought this day would come.

"Do you Terra," The priest began, causing Aqua to turn around in surprise. To her right was Terra, dressed in a tuxedo and smiling brightly. "take Aqua, to be your lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold, in sickness and in health, till death do you part?"

"I do." Terra said, smiling brightly. Aqua looked back and forth at the two boys, wondering what the heck was going on, why was she marrying both Terra and Ven? Why was she marrying at all? She wasn't even in college yet.

"Ahh!" Aqua cried, jumping up in fright and scaring the girls. Kairi had thrown her ice cream in the air, which inevitably landed on Xions back, making her shriek at the sudden cold and attempt to get it off her back. Aqua quickly rushed to Xions aid with napkins and began wiping off the cold treat.

"Aqua.." Kairi groaned, "what the heck was that about? You almost gave me a heart attack."

"I'm so sorry guys. I've just got a lot on my mind." Aqua sighed. "Hey...what do you guys think of me and Terra? Being together I mean?"

Kairi and Xion looked at each other, knowing full well that Aqua was thinking about Ven. Xion sat down opposite her and sighed.

"Well he is a nice guy. But to be honest it creeps us out. He just seems too nice. We've never seen him get mad or selfish. I know guys don't like showing emotions much, but it's just creepy."

Aqua nodded slowly in agreement. It was true, he only ever behaved different when he was alone with Aqua, whenever he was around people he was completely different. It annoyed her sometimes.

"Of course I guess that's just him, to be honest I'd hate for him to show his real self and see that he's an ass, but it'd be nice for him to just calm down. He should do what Ven does, and just go with it."

Xion gave a small smile that, to Aqua, was to make her feel better. In reality Xion was smiling because Aqua was subconsciously thinking about Ven. Kairi broke her out of her little daydream by nudging her shoulder.

"The guys are here, come on lets go get more ice cream."

Aqua turned to look at the beach and saw the guys walking towards them, with the exception of Axel chasing Vanitas for some reason. She spotted Terra and gave him a wave, who smiled and waved back.

"Wow, you wouldn't think Ven looked like that under his clothes would you?" Xion said slyly.

Aqua looked to Ven and felt herself blush a little. Ven was the smallest guy in the group, behind Sora and Vanitas, but he was by no means skinny. There was no six pack on him but his abs were noticeable, he also had a small waist with broad shoulders, and he had quite muscular arms. She definitely needed to make him wear tee shirts more often.

"Hey Aqua, enjoying the weather today?" Ven asked when he approached her, causing her to smile and take one or two peeks at his chest.

"Yeah, yeah it's good, we were just about to get ice cream, want to join us?"

"Sure, I'd.." Ven began, before Terra came over and put his arm around Aquas shoulders. "…love to, but I'm not really in the mood for ice cream right now. Maybe later?"

"Oh..." Aqua said, crestfallen. "We'll we can always get some later, my treat okay?"

"Sure, I better catch up with the guys, talk to you later?"

Before Aqua had a chance to reply, Ven walked over to where Sora and Riku were sitting, laughing at Axel wrestling Vanitas to the ground and shouting triumphantly about reclaiming his wallet.

"Hey, you okay?" Terra asked, only noticing Aquas slightly saddened expression.

"I'm fine, hey could you get me a sea salt ice cream?"

"Sure, I'll be right back." Terra smiled and gave her a small kiss before going to get her the ice cream. Out of the corner of his eye Ven watched them kiss before frowning and turning to Sora.

"Enough is enough. I'm through with being secretive. I'm going to do everything I can to be with Aqua. Boyfriend or not."

Sora looked at him surprised as he got up and walked over to Kairi and Xion, not expecting Ven to be so blatantly determined. Then again this was the first real thing he was ever determined to gain. Quickly getting up, Sora went over to the still pinned down Vanitas and repeated what Ven had said to him. Vanitas grinned and rubbed his hands together like a villain from a cartoon would do, despite the fact Axel was almost crushing his lungs

"Brilliant. Sora, it's time for plan two. Now get this fatass off of me!"


	6. Chapter 6

**OMG! I actually posted another chapter and it didn't take months! o: This must be some kind of back to school miracle, cept I dont have school anymore .' Anyways you guys know I don't own this, otherwise I'd be too rich to be writing stories.**

* * *

**Chapter Six****:**

"So you want me to…what?" Sora said, not getting the plan, which caused Vanitas to be on the verge of strangling him.

"For the millionth time. You need to call Ven, say that all of us are going for a boys night out except for him. That means Terra will be with us at all times, which means we'll be able to let Ven and Aqua have time to themselves."

"Okay? So how will we explain Ven not being able to come with us?"

Vanitas smiled. "Easy, we tell the guys that Ven had to do some extra credit thing for school. We all know how bad he is at algebra. So that's the plan. I've already set up the guys night out, and told all the girls not to hang out with Aqua tonight so that she'll be available to go out with Ven."

Sora gave it some though, it was a good idea, but he couldn't help but feel there was something about the plan that was flawed, he just couldn't figure out what it could be.

"Alright. I'll call him. I just have a funny feeling about this whole plan."

Sora pulled out his phone and dialled Vens number, getting up and leaving the room to talk to him, leaving Vanitas alone.

"Just a matter of time Ven. Just a matter of time."

* * *

**-Several hours later-**

Ven hummed along happily as he began getting dressed for his night with Aqua. He decided to be more casual than their last date and went with a simple white shirt with grey jeans, finishing it off with a black jacket and white converse.

"Hey Ven! Are you sure you don't want to come out with me and the guys?" Vanitas shouted from downstairs.

Ven smiled, the guys could have asked did he want to be the first teenager in space and he still would have refused. Tonight was his second date with Aqua.

"I told you I've schoolwork to do! Maybe some other time!"

At the bottom of the stairs Vanitas smiled, knowing Vens lie was something he made up, he grabbed his jacket and left the house, meeting up with Sora and heading down to the town to meet up with the rest of the guys. Ven looked out the window, watching the guys until they were out of sight before heading downstairs, grabbing his wallet and heading towards Aquas house. The sky was clear, the stars shining brightly with a light cool breeze throughout the island. Ven planned to bring her to Bowdam, a small island not too far from Destiny Islands. They were having a festival tonight, along with a fireworks display at midnight.

"Hey Ven!"

Ven looked up and saw Aqua standing at the door of her house. She closed the door and ran over to him, smiling as she approached him. Ven however was preoccupied looking at her. She wore a dark purple dress that stopped just at her knees. She was also wearing a small silver necklace with a diamond on it, a present Ven remembered giving her for her birthday last year.

"Wow..Aqua you look..wow."

Aqua giggled at Vens comment and spun around once, letting him look at her dress. When she faced him again she giggled at the blush appearing on his face.

"Ven you're blushing."

"Wha..no I'm not!" Ven said defiantly, trying to hide his face. Aqua just laughed and held took hold of his hand, squeezing it gently. "You're so silly."

Ven smiled and walked alongside her, holding her hand as they made their way to the ferry that would bring them to Bowdam. They had stopped holding hands as they walked through the town towards the ferry, as they didn't want anyone seeing them holding hands. When they reached the ferry Ven paid for the tickets and they both went onto the top deck.

"So how long were you waiting for our second date?" Aqua asked, leaning on the railing and looking at Bowdam as the ferry slowly made it's way towards it.

"A lot, I was wishing that our first one didn't end." Ven said, placing his hand on hers. "But I plan to make this a hundred times better."

Aqua smiled and kisses him on the cheek, smiling as he blushed before resting her head on his shoulder, squeezing his hand gently.

Both Aqua and Ven were greeted to the sounds of the festival. The music was lively and there was people dancing on the streets, with passersby clapping and cheering at the festivities. Holding hands, Ven and Aqua walked through the market, seeing all the wares on sale especially for the festival. Aqua saw a stand selling masquerade masks and pointed at a sky blue and dark blue one she thought looked cute. Ven decided to buy it for her and got one that was bright orange and red.

"Ladies and gentlemen!" A man that was on a nearby stage said into a microphone. Both Ven and Aqua made their way through the crowd to get a better look and see what was going on.

"It is my delight to celebrate our twenty fifth Bowdam festival tonight! And to commemorate the twenty fifth anniversary we're going to have a little fun. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the festival games! Now we're going to need three couples up here."

A spotlight started moving around, landing on an elderly couple, who made their way to the stage and smiled as they held hands. When the spotlight went around again it passed over Aqua and Ven, causing both of their hearts to almost stop, however it went past them and landed on a couple who were slightly older than both of them.

"Heh, we were lucky weren't we?" Aqua said.

""Yeah, it almost landed on.."

Ven shielded his eyes as the bright light shone over both of them. It only took him a second to realise that himself and Aqua were chosen as the third couple.

"And we have our third couple folks!" The man said happily as Ven and Aqua walked up on stage, blushing red as they stood awkwardly next to each other.

"Our first game tonight is wrap the mummy. The object of the game is for the man to wrap the woman up like a mummy using kitchen paper. You have one minute and the one with the best mummy wins. You all have your paper, annnnnnddddd begin!"

Ven quickly bent down and tucked the kitchen paper into Aquas high hell, before quickly spinning around and around as it wrapped around her. Aqua giggled like crazy as Ven spun around too fast and fell over, causing everyone to laugh as he got back up blushing. He managed to reach up around her chest before the buzzer sounded.

"Well folks that was pretty fun! But it looks like we have a winner. Our winner is Mr and Mrs. Hikaru!"

Ven, Aqua and everyone else clapped as the elderly couple smiled, and waved their hands, before the man gave them a small trophy.

"Hey Ven?"

"Yeah Aqu.." Ven turned his head to look at her only to be met with her lips kissing his. It felt like forever until she broke the kiss and smiled at his softly.

"I'm really having fun."

Ven smiled brightly and took her hand, squeezing it softly. "Me too Aqua."

* * *

**D'aww fluffyness :3 But now I've decided to do what other authors do on this site. I'll update this story again when it reaches over 20 reviews, that's right, I'm being a review whore. Please don't hate meh D:**


	7. Chapter 7

"Oh come on! You know as well as I do that Final Fantasy XIII was a good game!"

"Yeah it was, whenever there was any parts of the game you could actually play."

Ven and Aqua were walking back towards her house, her arm linked with his, happy and tired after their night at the festival. They had started talking about their favourite things to do, and ended up landing on video games. Unfortunately they landed on one Aqua liked a lot, whereas Ven only thought it was okay.

"Psh, you just don't like it because you don't understand it."

"Of course I don't understand it. They don't even bother explaining it! They give you a big menu full of all the information they should tell you. That's not a good thing."

"Oh shush, you're just too lazy to read."

Ven smiled and took hold of her hand, squeezing it gently as they made their way up to Aquas house. When they were standing on the porch they faced each other, now quiet and nervous to look at one another.

"So..I guess this is goodnight." Ven asked, scratching the back of his head.

"Yeah. I had a lot of fun though. I won't ever forget about it." Aqua said happily, causing Ven to smile and nod his head. "Me either."

"Night Ven." Aqua whispered, giving him a kiss on the cheek before quickly going inside. Ven felt his face go red and left for home, before suddenly jumping in the air slightly at how good the date had gone. Nothing went wrong.

Except for Terra seeing Ven leaving Aquas house.

"Wait a minute, I thought Ven was at home? Why was he at Aquas?"

Terra had a bad feeling. Whatever was going on, he was going to make sure it would stop.

* * *

"Hey Ven, time to get up!"

Ven groaned and forced himself to sit up out of bed, to be greeted with a pillow thrown at his face. Groaning in annoyance and pushing it away he rubbed his eyes to see his 'loving' brother standing opposite him with a smug look on his face.

"What d'you want Vanitas.." Ven yawned.

"Oh nothing, I just wanna know how you and Aqua got on last night on your date."

"We weren't on a date Vanitas. I told you, I finished my homework and asked her does she want to hang out for a while. Not a date."

Ven laid back down on his bed and covered his head with the pillow, which was a bad idea as Vanitas had decided to sit down on it, pressing it onto Vens face and cutting off his breathing. Ven flailed wildly trying to get his brother off as Vanitas sat there smiling.

"Huh, that's funny, could've sworn that a guy friend and a lady friend don't dress up nice just to hang out. Admit it, you were on a date. Admit it or I'll leave you to suffocate."

Vanitas stood up and Ven threw the pillow off, gasping for breath, his face red as he took mouthfuls air.

"Okay," gasped Ven, "it was like a date. We didn't do anything though, we just went to the festival on Bowdam and had fun. Now go away, I want to sleep."

"Whatever you say loverboy." Vanitas smirked and left the room as Ven settled back into bed. As Vanitas made his way downstairs he heard a knocking on the front door. Jumping the last few steps he opened it and was surprised to see Terra there. Terra never knocked on their door before, scratch that, Terra had never even been on the doorstep before. Something must've happened recently.

"Hey Terra, what're you doing here? You disappeared on us last night." Vanitas asked surprised.

"Yeah sorry about that. I didn't want to call your phone in case you were all asleep. But do you know where Ven was last night?"

Vanitas instantly realised what Terra was thinking about, he must've seen Ven out with Aqua last night. But how much he saw Vanitas didn't know. It was best to tell the truth.

"Oh yeah, he finished his schoolwork early and asked Aqua if she wanted to hang out. I think she wanted to go to that Bowdam festival last night. Why? Something wrong?"

"Oh. No it's fine, I just saw Ven leaving Aqua's house last night, was just surprised that he was there so late."

"Eh, well you know Ven, has to be Mr. 'I must protect my friends at all costs!'. Makes me wonder if he hasn't realised that Naminé would be able to kick his butt."

Terra smiled and nodded his head. "Yeah, well I better get going, sorry for taking up your time, talk to you later then."

After Vanitas closed the door Terra made his way to his car and got in and drove off. But his smile instantly turned to a frown. "They went to the festival…I better keep an eye on those two."

* * *

Aqua groaned as she ran down the path with Kairi, who was at least twenty feet ahead of her and full of energy. Aqua only woke up about half an hour before Kairi showed up and hurried to get dressed and come with her. Aqua had no choice but to agree, and she was regretting it right now.

"Hey Aqua! Come on or we're gonna be late!"

"Slow down Kairi, I'm still tired."

"No, come on we're going to the Mana club!"

Kairi ran back to her, and took hold of her hand and pulled her along with her, making Aqua hurry up, it took about fifteen minutes of running through the town, dragging Kairi away from window shopping and getting ice cream before they finally reached the Mana club, a small cafe where Xion and a girl that she didn't know were already there.

"Hey guys! This is Olette, she just moved here. Olette, this is Aqua and Kairi."

Kairi and Aqua both smiled and said hell to the new girl, glad that there was someone else in their group who wasn't a boy. It wasn't official yet, but when Xion made a friend they usually ended up being part of the gang.

"Okay, so now the reason we're really here is to ask Aqua about her date with Ven." Said Kairi.

Aqua almost spat out her juice all over Olette, who had ducked under the table in an attempt to avoid it. Wiping off her mouth and trying to hide her red cheeks, she shook her head.

"It was so not a date. It was just us hanging out at the festival, I wouldn't call that a date."

Xion laughed and shook her head. "Aqua Aqua Aqua, don't you know the rules of dating? If a guy and a girl both go out alone, dress up nice, and go somewhere slightly romantic it's considered a date?"

"No it isn't!" Aqua said blushing more now. "Anyways where the heck did you hear this from?"

"On one of my nightly prowls. You know I get bored of sitting around at home doing nothing when I could be stalking people." Xion said proudly, as if stalking someone constantly was an achievement.

"Well it was just both of us hanging out, it was a lot of fun though. And he was trying real hard to make me have a good time. We even had to do a contest and he ended up having to wrap me in toilet paper."

Aqua laughed when she saw the girls expressions to her being wrapped up in toilet paper. Then they all started laughing.

"So when're you gonna hang out with him again? Tonight?" Olette asked, taking a drink of her smoothie she had ordered.

"Hmm..I don't know. Guess I'll just have to wait and see."

Aqua looked out the window, and to everyone else she was looking at the busy street outside full of people, but in fact she was in the back of her own mind, remembering all the fun she had last night and how special the time she spent with him was.

"But I hope it'll be soon." She said to herself.

* * *

The girls stayed at the Mana Bar for most of the day, thankfully having exhausted all their questions towards Aqua and were now talking about what they were going to do for the day. Most of the suggestions were to go to the movies, relax at the beach or go shopping.

"Then it's settled, we're going to the movies!" Xion declared, standing up and slapping her hand on the table.

"You guys go ahead, I think I'll just go shopping for some new clothes." Aqua said, smiling as she watched Xion nurse her hand, having hurt it when she slapped the table too hard.

"Okay then, but you have to come hang out with us tomorrow, all of us at Xions house. Agreed?" Kairi said, to which the other girls nodded.

Saying their farewells, Aqua went in the opposite direction of Kairi, Xion and Olette, and made her way to the mall. She was surprised when a pair of arms wrapped themselves around her and lifted her up. She gave a small squeak of surprise before turning around to look at Terra, before pouting and pushing him away playfully.

"You know that I hate when you do that." She whined.

"I know, but it's just so darn cute. So where're you going?"

"Just the mall, want to come with?"

"Sure, I could go for something to eat anyways." Terra replied, taking a hold of her hand and walking into the mall with her.

* * *

Axel peeked his head out of the ladies restroom, quickly getting away as fast as he could and wiping off lipstick stains from his face. He approached the nearest garbage can and dumped the incriminating evidence, and that was when he saw Terra and Aqua. Ducking down behind a large potted plant and an elderly woman who was quite alarmed at his behaviour, he pulled out his phone and dialled Vanitas' number.

"Hello?"

"It's Axel, got it memorised?"

"Ugh, I've known you since we were five Axel. For the last damn time, I have it memorised. I have all of it memorised, every single thing you could possibly say before your catchphrase is memorised in my head."

"Even 'I see Terra and Aqua walking hand in hand at the mall right this very moment, got it memorised'?"

"…shut up."

"So want me to follow them?"

"Yeah, Terra came to my house this morning, so he's probably a bit suspicious. And don't make it seem like you're following him. Maybe make a girl pretend like she's your date or something. Or just don't let them see you."

"Got it."

Axel hung up the phone and looked at the elderly woman, who had ended up listening to most of the conversation. Axel gave her a cheeky grin and winked at her.

"So, wanna be my date for this evening?"

Five minutes later Axel was crawling after Terra and Aqua, the elderly lady having swung her bag into Axels prized possessions after his rather rude remark.

"Ughh…love hurts.."


	8. Chapter 8

"Is that all that happened?" Vanitas asked again.

Axel was sitting on a chair in the kitchen, groaning as he shifted in his seat trying to get comfortable. Whatever that woman had in her bag, it was downright painful.

"For the last time, they went into a women's clothing store, went to get food, kissed a few times, and then ended up going leaving in his car. All the while I was cradling two injured soldiers." Axel moaned, still shifting in his seat to get into a more comfortable position.

"What's the big deal anyways?" Axel continued. "He is her boyfriend, and she's his girlfriend. Isn't it good that they're hanging out together, y'know, to throw Terra off of being suspicious?"

"Yes, but we don't want her to think he's more amazing than Ven. Well, we all know he's more amazing but we have to make Aqua not remember that."

"I don't get it, why do you want Ven and Aqua together? I thought you never do anything for anyone unless there's something in it for you?"

"Who says there isn't something in it for me? But whatever, we need to make sure Aqua and Terra spend enough time so that Terra isn't suspicious, but not enough that she doesn't want to hang out with Ven." Vanitas said, moving back and forth in his room.

"That's easier said that done you know."

"Exactly, it's a challenge, and I like challenges." Vanitas grinned, rubbing his hands together diabolically. "Come on, let's go troll some Twilight fans on the internet."

* * *

"Hey Ven, want to go to the movies with me and Riku? I heard that remake of Fright Night is meant to be awesome."

Ven yawned and stretched as he lay down on Soras bed. "Eh, I dunno, can't we just watch a movie here or something?"

"Awh c'mon." Sora pleaded. "We've watched all of the movies I have, can't we go and see something new?"

"Don't forget violent." Came Riku's voice outside Soras' room. He let himself in and sat down on the bed next to Ven. "So are we going or what?"

"Yeah, just as soon as we convince Ven to come along."

"But the movie theatre is so far away." Ven whined. "It's easier just to watch a movie here."

"No way, I am not watching another of Sora's movie selections. I almost wanted to crawl into the couch and hide away for the rest of my life." Riku said, pulling Ven up off the bed and over his shoulder.

"Hey what're you doing! Riku! Lemme go!" Ven shouted and flailed as Riku made his way down the stairs slowly, making sure that if he was going to fall then Ven was going first.

"Awh c'mon Ven it'll be fun!" Sora said cheerfully, hiding his laughter as Ven struggled harder as Riku walked outside before dropping him onto the ground.

"There, I carried you most of the way, now walk." Riku said defiantly, causing Ven to glare at him. Finally he turned and walked down the path, grumbling to himself and giving silent threats to Riku.

* * *

"Oh man that was such a good movie! Colin Farrell.." Xion sighed dreamily, gazing off into space through her 3D glasses.

"Eww no more drool Xion, you already soaked all of my popcorn while we were in there." Kairi replied, keeping her distance from Xion so as not to end up like her popcorn.

"I just wonder how she's capable of making that much drool without drying up into nothing.." Olette whispered to Kairi, who was hiding behind said girl to also avoid Xion and her drooling mouth.

"Hey guys!" Sora shouted, waving to them at the opposite end of the theatre. Kairi squeaked and quickly started fixing her hair, while Xion closed her mouth and wiped the remaining drool off her face at the sight of Riku.

"Friends of yours?" Olette asked, seeing the three young boys who were walking towards them.

"Oh you've never met them. Right.." Said Kairi, still trying to make her hair lay neat. "C'mon I'll introduce you."

The three girls walked over to the boys, and Kairi quickly made introductions.

"Guys this is Olette. She's new around here, so we've just been hanging out and stuff. Olette, this is Sora, Riku and Ventus, but we just call him Ven."

"Oh Ven, you were that guy Aqua went to the festival with right? The one who wrapped her up in toilet paper?"

Ven turned several shades of red as he looked at Sora and Riku, who were grinning mischievously, then towards Kairi and Xion, who giggled at his expression. Olette just looked at them all and frowned. "Did I..say something wrong?"

"Oh no Olette, you said it perfectly, come along now Ventus, we wish to speak with you." Riku said in a freaky polite voice. Sora knew that voice well, it was the voice Riku used before he was going to make you feel more embarrassed than you've ever been in your life.

"Uh no thanks, I'm hiding!" Ven shouted before running towards the room where their movie was showing. He turned his head to see if anyone was following before suddenly slipping and landing on the ground hard.

"Oww..." Ven moaned in pain. Opening his eyes, he saw everyone crowded around him.

"Man that had to hurt.." Riku said.

"Why is the floor so wet..?" Ven whined.

"Sorry Ven. I didn't think I drooled that much." Xion said ashamedly, hiding herself behind Olette and Kairi.

"…Gross." Ven muttered.

Aqua twirled around in her dress happily. She had just bought it for the date Terra wanted to bring her on tonight. He had revealed to her that he had passed his Mark of Mastery exam and that he wanted to celebrate it with her.

* * *

The doorbell rang and she quickly put on her high heels, grabbed her bag and walked down the stairs. She quickly made sure her dress and hair were smooth before opening the door, smiling brightly as she saw Terra.

"Hey you." Aqua said smiling.

"Wow, hey yourself." Terra replied, looking her up and down. "You look amazing."

"Oh shush." Aqua giggled, taking his hand and leaving the house with him. He opened the car door for her and closed it after she got inside, then went to his own side and got in and drove towards the town.

"So where are we going?" Aqua asked, Terra had only mentioned a date, and that they should dress nice, other than that it was a mystery.

"You'll see." Terra said smiling, before turning left and stopping outside a restaurant. Aqua looked out and her smile faltered. It was the exact same restaurant that Ven had brought her to. Her mind instantly travelled to the pier, where her and Ven had gone after the restaurant and kissed.

"You okay?" Terra asked, seeing Aqua had a less than enthusiastic face.

"Oh, yeah I'm fine. I was surprised you managed to get a reservation here."

Terra smiled and they both went into the restaurant. They sat in a table of their own and ordered dinner. Smiling and telling jokes to each other. It was nearing the end of the night. And people were starting to leave the restaurant. Aqua yawned, feeling content after having eaten such a nice meal. However she noticed Terra shifting about slightly.

"Hey Aqua, I want to talk to you about something. Mind if we go to the pier afterwards?"

Aqua felt her heart start to pump faster, that was almost what Ven had asked her a couple of weeks ago. Hiding her hands under the table, which were starting to shake.

"Yeah..sure."

Terra smiled and took her hand, and they both left the restaurant and made their way to the pier. Aqua looked at Terra, he looked really happy, but Aqua felt extremely nervous.

Once they reached the pier, Terra turned around to face her.

"Aqua, I want to ask you something."

Aqua heard the question, but her mind had completely gone blank, and the next thing she knew she had responded.

_"Oh god. What have I done."_ She thought to herself.


	9. Chapter 9

Ven sat in his room, throwing a rubber ball against the wall opposite him and catching it as it bounced back to him. He hadn't heard from Aqua in a while and it made him feel uneasy. He kept telling himself to calm down, that she was probably just with Terra.

"Terra…" Ven muttered, frowning and throwing the ball a little harder, causing it to hit his desk and bounce off into a corner of the room. He was really starting to resent Terra. Ven was the one who brought Aqua to Bowdam, had the nerve to admit he liked her, and worked as hard as he could to make her smile.

"So why is she still with him?"

Ven sighed and got up, heading downstairs and grabbing his jacket before leaving. The weather was gloomy and rainy, and Vens mood reflected that. He walked past Aquas house, and saw none of the lights were on. She must've been out with him again.

Ven scowled and trudged on through the town, heading down towards the beach. Normally the beach was the best place to go to for thinking, but Ven decided against it, as the stormy weather made the water particularly dangerous, instead he went into a nearby café. It was empty minus one or two workers. When he sat down a waitress came up to him, looking at him with a slightly bored expression.

"Wow, didn't think we'd have any people in here today. What can I get you?"

"Just a paopu smoothie please."

After the woman wrote down his order and left Ven felt his phone vibrate. Taking it out he saw it was a message from Sora asking where he was. He texted back where he was and Sora responded saying he'd be there in a while. Just as Ven finished off his smoothie Sora came through the door, shaking his head slightly to get whatever water there was out of his hair.

"Sheesh Ven, you couldn't have just stayed at home?" Sora said as he sat down on the seat opposite Ven.

"I had a lot on my mind, what've you been up to?"

"Oh, I just came from Kairis. She hates thunderstorms so I had to go and calm her down."

Ven inwardly rolled his eyes and sighed. He didn't want to be mean to Sora, but he couldn't help but feel jealous towards his friend for having a great relationship.

"C'mon, let's get out of here, Vanitas wants to meet up at Axels house.

Paying for his smoothie, Ven and Sora walked out of the café, and hid their faces from the stormy weather. Unfortunately for them Axels house was a lot further up town, so they were completely drenched by the time they got there. Thankfully, Axel had a thing for fire, so when they reached his home they were greeted with a big roaring fire sitting in the fireplace, and they wasted no time in putting themselves in front of it.

"Oh man that feels so good." Sora sighed. "Stupid weather is freezing."

"Just don't be stealing all the heat you two." Axel said as he sat down on the couch, and spread himself out on it. Vanitas came in from the kitchen, drinking down a can of cola and slumped into an armchair opposite the couch.

"So how're you feeling Venny?"

Ven glared at his brother. "I told you not to call me that, and what d'you mean how am I feeling?"

"Oh please, I'm your brother remember? I can tell when something's up. It's Aqua isn't it."

Ven sighed and nodded. "Yeah, it's been a while since I've seen her. And she doesn't even talk to me as much as she used to. She's a lot more one worded whenever we message each other, take a look."

He threw his phone over to Vanitas and look at his messages. Resisting the urge to look through it for messages he could use to embarrass him, he went straight to the messages between him and Aqua. He looked at how much they texted each other, big long messages talking about their days and what not, but the further down he went the shorter the messages got, until it basically was something short simple answers like 'What're you doing', 'Not much, you?' 'Same', 'Ah, okay'.

"Maybe she just got busy?" Sora said as Vanitas handed the phone back to Ven. Axel snorted and shook his head as Vanitas sighed, Sora was a bit too hopeful for his own good.

"If I know Aqua, and I do from stalking most of our friends to learn about them, it's that Aqua never gets too busy. She always somehow manages to get everything done and have a lot of free time." Axel said.

"Wait, you stalk us?" Sora asked surprised.

"Uh no?"

"Anyways," Vanitas continued, "I'm going to find out what's going on. I mean even when I see Terra I don't see Aqua with him, so she must be off doing something else."

Vens eyebrows raised when he heard that. She wasn't with Terra all the time? Then what exactly was she doing?

* * *

Aqua looked out the window of her room solemnly. Her bright blue eyes had dulled a little and her hair was a bit untidy, which was a massive deal when it came to her. She had seen Ven walk by her house earlier, he didn't look too happy. At first she thought he was going to walk up to her house, but he just went in the direction of the town.

"Ven.." She desperately wanted to run up to him and see him again, but after last week she didn't know how to explain to him without hurting him. Part of her wished she never went on that date with Terra. She had thought it was merely because he had passed the exam and that he wanted to celebrate with just her, but how wrong she was.

She looked down at her hand, the small silver ring Terra had given her that night looked dull, as if telling her it knew how she was feeling. She looked out the window once again, hoping that there was some possible way for her to tell Ven without him getting upset or angry. But it was no use. No matter what she said she knew it'd destroy him.

She took one last look at her engagement ring, thinking any girl would be ecstatic at being engaged, but she just couldn't bring herself to feel happy. It felt like this simple little ring was going to take all of Vens happiness away from him, and she was worried he'd never get it back.

"Please..someone help me.." Aqua whispered hoarsely, tears forming in her eyes and she closed them and went to sleep. There would be no sweet dreams tonight.


	10. Chapter 10

**I am SO glad I finished this chapter, was annoying me for ages, and then the worst part was while I was writing it, someone shut off my laptop, so I had to start it all over again. Y U PPL MESS WIT MY TINGS! ლ(ಠ益ಠლ)**

* * *

_Beep Beep Beep Beep_

Aqua groaned and slowly sat up in her bed, rubbing her eyes with one hand as she reached for the snooze button on her alarm clock. After silencing the noisy device she got out of bed and pulled open the curtains. The storm had cleared overnight, and there was a clear blue sky with the sun hanging overhead outside, but Aqua still felt like there was a thundercloud hanging over her.

Aqua sighed. She knew hiding it wasn't going to help, she had to come out with it sooner or later. She was thankful however that she persuaded Terra not to say anything until she decided they both tell them all together. But part of her just wanted to try and find someone to tell her what to do. She decided to talk to Olette. She didn't know her that long, but because she wasn't a long time friend and didn't know either Ven or Terra personally she was obviously going to be unbiased in her opinion. She picked up her phone and dialled her number.

"_**This is Olette speaking, who may I ask is calling?"**_

"_Wow. Weird way to answer your cell phone." _Aqua thought to herself. "Hey Olette, this is Aqua. I know this is a bit sudden and all, but do you think we could hang out today?"

"_**Oh, sure Aqua no problem. Do you want to meet up somewhere?"**_

Aqua thought long and hard, before deciding on a place that everything started going crazy. "Yeah, could you meet me at the pier that leads out to the kids island in about an hour?"

"_**Okay, I'll see you then."**_

Aqua put down her phone and went to her wardrobe and picked out an outfit suitable for the warm weather and laid it on her bed, before going for a shower, hoping the warm water would relax her a bit.

* * *

"Vanitas you ass!"

Ven ran after his older brother, wielding a TV remote in his hand and revenge in his eyes. He was fed up with Vanitas sitting on his head in the mornings, especially when Vanitas helped himself to scrambled egg for breakfast this morning. The smell was not pleasant in the slightest.

"Aww c'mon it was just a joke!" Vanitas said as he ran for his life, despite the fact Ven was probably going to shove the remote somewhere Vanitas didn't want it, he couldn't help but find Vens reaction hilarious.

"I'll show you joke!" Ven cried as he leapt for his brother and managed to grab onto his leg, causing him to fall to the ground as Ven quickly pinned his legs down.

"Okay you win! I'm sorry!" Vanitas cried. "I call uncle!"

But Ven ignored him, and began hitting Vanitas over the head with the remote. It wasn't the best feeling, but Vanitas was just glad he wasn't going to have to push it out of him later on in the day. After Ven felt he gave Vanitas a big enough lump on his head, he got up and walked to the mirror, checking his face.

"I swear Vanny, if I get pink eye or something I'll murder you."

"Oh stop being dramatic," Vanitas mumbled as he got up off the floor, rubbing his now bruised head. "We're heading to the play island today. We've not been over there in ages and the guys and girls want to hang out for a while."

Ven stopped checking his eye in the mirror, certain that he didn't get infected from Vanitas' stupidity. "What guys and girls? Who's going?"

"Oh a bunch of strangers I've never met before, one guy carries around this small hatchet and he occasionally says he wants to give me a haircut with it. Who do you think dumbass? All our friends?"

Ven smirked and rolled his eyes as he walked back up the stairs, calling down to Vanitas as he went. "Just so you know. They're my friends, you're more like the dumb pet we keep around to amuse ourselves with."

"Bite me Venny!" Vanitas shouted from the bottom of the stairs.

"That's your job mutt!" Ven called back as he closed his bedroom door.

Ten minutes later, people passing by their house would stop momentarily at the noise coming from inside before walking off. When the two boys eventually came out of the house, Ven was limping and Vanitas was holding his nose.

"Ugh, way to go Ven, you didn't have to punch me y'know." Vanitas groaned as his nose was a red colour from being punched.

"Oh shut up, you didn't have to bite me!"

Vanitas smiled, but quickly turned it to a frown as it hurt his nose more. "You asked for it."

* * *

Aqua sat down on the pier and looked out at the play island. She could only think of the last time they were out there. Herself, Ven and Terra, along with everyone else were having fun. Back then there were no relationships or dating between any of them. Sure there was a bit of jealousy, but that mostly was just an excuse for the boys to race each other to see who was faster.

However, soon her thoughts quickly changed to that night with Ven, on this very pier, and how she kissed him. It wasn't a first date kiss, it was a lovers kiss. One you would put all your emotions into to show them how much you cared about them. Then her mind drifted to the times Terra kissed her. It felt good, but it didn't feel like the one she had given Ven, especially not the one they had when he proposed and she said yes.

She looked down at the ring now hanging on a chain around her neck, she decided against wearing it on her hand for fear that one of her friends would show up and see it. Plus if Terra showed up she could just show him the ring on the chain, so he wouldn't wonder why she wasn't wearing it.

"Hey Aqua!" Olette shouted, causing Aqua to jump and hurriedly put the ring out of sight, before turning to smile at her as Olette sat down beside her.

"Hey Olette," Aqua smiled, "thanks for coming today, means a lot to me."

"Oh it's not a problem. I'm happy you asked me to hang out today, I've been pretty bored lately."

Aqua smiled at Olette, but inwardly she felt like she shouldn't talk to Olette about what happened. She wanted to hang out and have fun, the last thing she wanted was to listen to Aqua tell her about her dilemma when she didn't even know them all that well.

"So any idea what you want to do today?" Aqua asked, wondering if she should talk to Kairi or Xion after today.

"Well I heard the guys were going out to that island today. We could wait here until they come down and we could all go together?"

"Oh, I'm sure it'll be fun." Aqua said, giving a fake smile. She was really hoping that Ven wouldn't be there. She wanted to see him so much, but she wasn't ready to face him yet. She didn't want to see his reaction when he found out.

Olette and Aqua sat on the pier for about twenty minutes, talking about their lives when they heard a whistle from behind them. They could see Axel, Xion, Kairi, Sora, Riku, Vanitas and Ven.

Aquas heart almost stopped when she saw Ven, she wasn't ready to see him just yet, despite missing him so much. She had no idea what to say to him, especially if he asked her why she wasn't talking to him as much anymore.

"Hey you guys!" Kairi said excitedly, hugging both Aqua and Olette when she came up to them. "What're you guys doing here? Are you coming to the island with us?"

"Yeah, I could do with a day of fun actually." Aqua smiled at Kairi.

"Hey! If you two are done? We've gotta get going!" Vanitas shouted over at them, as the rest of the guys started pushing the boats into the water.

"Oops, well lets get going." Kairi smiled as they both got into the boats and waited as the boys pushed them further out to sea before getting in and rowing. Aqua took a few glances at Ven, who caught her eye but looked away indifferently. She frowned when he didn't look back at her. She knew he was annoyed at her.

* * *

"Axel, I swear to god if you try and put sand down my clothes again, I'll make you eat it." Vanitas said warningly as the red head tried to sneak up on him with a handful of sand.

Axel moaned and dropped the sand before heading towards the water, jumping in and joining up with Xion, Kairi, Sora and Riku in a splashing contest. Aqua was down by the beach watching them, and Olette, Ven and Vanitas were all together by the trees getting some shade.

"So Olette, tell me 'bout yourself." Vanitas asked bluntly. She didn't say it, but Ven could tell that Vanitas' personality intimidated her a little bit.

"Oh don't worry about him Olette, he's always like this. It's easier to just ignore him."

"Uhm, speaking of ignoring people. Are you and Aqua having a fight?" Olette asked, causing Ven's face to instantly turn bright red. Vanitas however, suddenly sat upright and was paying close attention, a mischievous smile on his face while he listened.

"Well, we're not having a fight exactly, but I was just kind of annoyed lately that she wasn't really being talkative. And anytime I asked her if she was okay she'd avoid the subject or wouldn't reply back for ages talking about something completely different." Ven sighed, laying down on the sand and putting his hands behind his head. "I dunno, maybe I just want her to know how I was feeling when she was behaving different towards me?

"Ouch, my brother getting revenge. Oh what his this cruel world done to you." Vanitas cried dramatically, before spluttering and coughing out the mouthful of sand Ven had chucked at him.

"Anyway," Olette said, watching with amusement as Vanitas made his way down to the water to wash the sand off his face, "I don't think you should do that Ven. I know you feel that she's hiding things from you and stuff, but hiding things from her never helps. Especially if there's feelings involved. I know this sounds silly, but my grandmother always used to say that, if you keep emotions you feel about a person to yourself, no matter what they are, they'll always come out the in the worst way possible. Just, just think about it okay? I like all of you guys, I wouldn't want to see you arguing and losing something special."

Ven stared up at the sky as Olette got up and joined the rest of the gang in a splashing contest. He thought long and hard about Olette's advice, damn was she smarter than she looked. Ven considered getting up right then and there to go and talk to Aqua about why she was avoiding talking to him like normal, but decided against it. They were with all their friends and it would be difficult if they suddenly started arguing. Then everyone else would find out what they had done.

"Screw it. I'll do it tonight." Ven said to himself as he got up and walked to the water, finally deciding to join in on the game.

* * *

Aqua watched as all her friends splashed each other in the water. She couldn't help but smile, even though she couldn't get the worrying thoughts out of her mind. Her eyes drifted to Ven, who had a smile similar to one a child would have on Christmas day after seeing all the presents they received, and even giggled a little when Sora tackled Ven into the water, causing the water to foam up from the flailing of limbs coming from both teens.

As Aqua stood up her necklace fell out from its safe spot, causing it to hang outside of her top. She quickly, grabbed it and hurriedly put it back in before looking back up. None of her friends had noticed. With a sigh of relief, she sat back down and continued watching them play, politely refusing whenever they asked her to join them.

Vanitas stared at Aqua most of all, though he made a good job of not making it obvious. By chance, he had looked in Aqua's direction as she stood up, and something fell out of her top. He knew instantly it was a chain, but whatever was on it was something Aqua didn't want anyone to see. It wouldn't be that way for long though. If this was something important enough that Aqua needed to hide it, then he was going to find out what it was.

* * *

**See what I mean about it annoying me? I have a huge gut feeling this chapter fell on it's ass, then got spanked with a paddle a couple of times for good measure, towards the ending. But, it's done. And I'm thinking I might finish off this story at around chapter 14 or fifteen. Depends on what I can think of as a finish.**

**Until next time, keep on RAGIN' ლ(ಠ益ಠლ)**


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